Behavior Therapy Theory Research Articles

Progressive Discipline: An Oxymoron?

This paper contrasts competing paradigms of a key issue in the employee-employer relationship: the application of the concept of progressive discipline. In a review of both the arbitral jurisprudence in the unionized sector, and the organizational behavior literature, the author illustrates two very different perspectives regarding the application of discipline in the workplace: one view is embodied in arbitral law and focuses on the corrective effects of discipline, while the other is embodied in behavior modification theory and emphasizes its negative effects. The notion of discipline is then discussed in a broader perspective by highlighting some current trends in human resource management, as well as alternative approaches to dealing with employee misconduct.

Electronic Performance Monitoring and Motivation: A Behavioral Modification Perspective

The increasing use of electronic monitoring has resulted in considerable debate among the public, labor groups, business groups, and increasingly among academicians. However, electronic monitoring research to date has been lacking and contradictory. This paper applies organizational behavior modification theories to argue that, when properly implemented, electronic monitoring can be an effective motivational tool. Organizational decisions regarding purpose and disclosure of monitoring, feedback source and monitoring related standards are theorized to affect the relationship between monitoring and employee motivation.

Behavior Modification in Primary Care: The Pressure System Model

The leading causes of death in the United States are predominantly attributable to modifiable behaviors. Patients with behavioral risk factors for premature death and disability, including dietary practices; sexual practices; level of physical activity; motor vehi cle use patterns; and tobacco, alcohol, and illicit sub stance use, are seen far more consistently by primary care providers than by mental health specialists. Yet models of behavior modification are reported, debated, and revised almost exclusively in the psychology litera ture. While the Stages of Change Model, or Transtheo retical Model, has won application in a broadening array of clinical settings, its application in the primary care setting is apparently quite limited despite evidence of its utility [Prochaska J, Velicer W. Am J Health Promot 1997;12:38–48]. The lack of a rigorous behav ioral model developed for application in the primary care setting is an impediment to the accomplishment of public health goals specified in the Healthy People objectives and in the reports of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The Pressure System Model reported here synthesizes elements of established behavior modification theories for specific application under the constraints of the primary care setting. Use of the model in both clinical and research settings, with outcome evaluation, is encouraged as part of an effort to advance public health.

Toward a Strategy for Teaching Engineering Design

AbstractDesign is behavior. Therefore, it can best be understood by means of behavioral theory and must be taught in a way consistent with the theory of behavior modification. This simple fact appears to have been overlooked by most, if not all, engineering educators who teach design courses or write textbooks on engineering design. This article examines this thesis and its relationship to engineering heuristics by considering specific examples taken from current practice in engineering design education.

UTILIZING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE OFFSHORE OILFIELD DIVING SAFETY

Performance management involves using behavior modification techniques to improve organizational performance. The application of performance management to the area of occupational safety is especially well matched, since most workplace injuries can be attributed to behavioral problems (i.e., unsafe acts). This investigation further extends the growing body of literature on safety performance management to yet another industry—offshore oilfield diving. It further bridges the gap between behavior modification theory and practice by heavily incorporating in‐house personnel to implement the performance management interventions.

Pain-related behaviors Communication of pain

F ordyce8,g made a major contribution to the understanding of chronic pain by focusing attention on the behaviors of chronic pain patients and the role of operant learning factors in the complex pain experience. Two decades later it is fitting to reflect on the subsequent developments. Keefe and Dunsmore focus on a key ingredient of the model: the measurement of pain behaviors, providing an excellent, succinct overview of the evolution of the “pain behavior” construct and the developments in measurement methods for the construct. In responding to the focus article it is therefore reasonable to consider how well these developments have taken advantage of the behavioral conceptualization. What were the potential gains from behavioral approaches made possible by Fordyce’s contribution? Attractions of a behaviorist approach are that observations might avoid difficulties arising from self-report of subjective states, factors controlling behaviors might be readily recognized, and identification of aspects of the complex pain phenomenon as behaviors would permit linkage to the well-developed theory and technology of behavior modification. Implicit in the last is the need to recognize adaptive and maladaptive behaviors so that appropriate strategies for increasing or decreasing response frequency can be implemented. It is legitimate to ask, therefore, have measures of pain behaviors lived up to the behaviorist promise?

Current philosophical issues in the scientific evaluation of behavior therapy theory and outcome

Recent philosophic debates about scientific realism, it is argued, are germane to issues concerning behavior therapy theories and outcome hypotheses. In this article, I try, first, to clarify a kind of realism that is relevant in particular to behavior therapy. Second, I try to provide some support for this sort of realism.

Androgyne Becomes Bisexual in Sexological Theory: Plato to Freud and Neuroscience

Plato conceptualized primordial humans as androgynes, the children of the moon. The primordial hermaphroditism of the mammalian embryo became known 2 1/2 millennia later in the mid-19th century. By 1864 Ulrichs had transposed the new knowledge from embryology to sexology to explain those to whom he gave the name Urnings (after Uranus who gave womanless birth to Venus from sea spume) as having "a woman's mind trapped in a man's body" (anima muliebris corpore virili inclusa). Urning became displaced by sexual inversion, and eventually by homosexual, a term coined together with heterosexual by Kertbeny as recently as 1869. The embryological principle of primordial hermaphroditism became linked to evolutionary Darwinism by way of Haeckel's principle of recapitulation, epitomized as "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." The recapitulation principle became linked, in turn, to the principle of intrapsychic primordial bisexuality, which became a cornerstone of Freud's psychoanalytic theory. Genetics influences the outcome of bipotentiality not directly but by way of hormonal programming of the brain, prenatally or neonatally, rather than pubertally and in maturity. Bipotentiality within the brain has been investigated chiefly in the hypothalamus where male/female dimorphism has been recognized, but its determinants and stages of differentiation, both prenatal and postnatal, remain to be fully ascertained. Neuroanatomical research on the outcome of male/female bipotentiality as gay, straight, or in between is politically and morally opposed by those who postulate a bipotential preference or voluntary choice. In stimulus-response associationism, to which behavior-modification theory belongs, bisexuality is equipotential, and either alternative may be evoked, ostensibly, dependent on the stimulus situation. In ethological theory, the effectiveness of stimulus-response bonding is confined chronologically to a critical period of development and is restricted phylogenetically by an innate recognition mechanism and an innate releasing mechanism. These limits are compatible, however, with some degree of both individual and ethnic variation.

Need for a Theoretical Justification of Humanistic Commitment Components in Behavior Therapy

Although behavior therapies are putatively based on traditional learning paradigms, standard clinical practice with outpatient clients presenting problems of personal adjustment routinely requires a voluntary commitment to collaboration (CTC) with the therapist (Harcum, Burijon, & Watson, 1988). Nevertheless, in the various summaries of the theoretical justification, even for cognitive behavior therapy, the mainstream literature generally omits this presumably necessary humanistic component and includes only acceptable principles from traditional learning paradigms. Development of a comprehensive theory of behavior therapy is prevented by this failure to acknowledge the need for a theoretical justification of CTC. This avoidance is attributed to a fear of being considered unscientifiC., fostered by traditional graduate training in psychology.

Application of Cognitive Behavior Modification: First and Third Graders’ Self-Management of Classroom Behaviors

The intent of this investigation was to apply Meichenbaum’s (1977) theory of cognitive behavior modification (CBM) to 30 first graders and 25 third graders who were exhibiting inappropriate classroom behaviors. Subjects were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups by grade level. The primary objective was to investigate CBM treatment effects on classroom behavior as measured by teacher ratings and treatment-blind observers of on-task ratings and locus-of-control scores. Data were analyzed using independent t tests to compare differences between experimental and control groups, with teacher ratings, observable behaviors, and loci of control serving as the dependent measures. Posttest scores for the three measures yielded significant effects for the CBM (self-instructional) experimental group at immediate and delayed assessments. Findings indicate that CBM may be considered as a classroom management option for regular education.

The Myths of the Myths About Behavior Mod in Organizations

The article is a response to a critique of behavior modification theory applied to organizations that was made by Edwin A. Locke. The issues in contention include: the deterministic viewpoint to explain human behavior; lack of a scientific base for behavior modification theory; inconsistency of vicarious learning with behavior-modification principles; the idea that behavior modification cannot work unless people are aware of and managers have control over contingencies; and the role of punishment in behavior modification.

Focused psychiatric curriculum selection: student, psychiatrist, and nonpsychiatrist physician expectations.

The authors obtained curriculum needs analysis data from second-year medical students and compared these with data obtained from nonpsychiatrist physicians and psychiatrists. All groups felt that interviewing skills, the doctor-patient relationship, managing the dying patient, and evaluation of suicidal patients were important topics. All gave psychological testing, behavior modification, mental retardation, and psychoanalytic theory the lowest teaching priority. The students gave a higher rating to all topics than did the other groups. The authors suggest that this kind of analysis can facilitate curriculum selection and implementation.

Behavior modification for patients and prisoners: constitutional ramifications of enforced therapy.

Behavior modification is a discipline familiar to psychiatrists and psychologists, which has only recently come to the attention of the legal profession. With the advent of the widespread use of behavioral treatment in our nation's institutions scholars have begun questioning the propriety and legality of such enforced therapy. This article describes learning theory and techniques of behavior modification. It then presents those issues raised by coerced behavior therapy on prisoners and mental patients and discusses relevant case law.

Behavior-therapy assessment: diagnosis, design and evaluation.

This paper discusses the development of behavior-therapy assessment as it relates to social learning theory and practice of behavior modification. Characteristic features of behavior-therapy assessment are outlined and discussed. In addition, a framework is provided for considering assessment in terms of initial decision making and selection of target behavior, design of treatment programs, and evaluation of outcome of treatment. Problems concerning reliability, validity and generalizability are discussed in relation to each of the phases in assessment.

Contract Therapy and Behavior Modification

To add to its usefulness as a therapeutic technique and aid in future research on its therapeutic effectiveness, Contract Therapy needs to be related to a theoretical orientation. Basic aspects of Contract Therapy are related to behavior modification theory and practice. However, the use of a behavioral focus does not necessitate a belief in behaviorism with its mechanisitic view of man. Instead, Contract Therapy is a behavioral counseling technique developed from a biblical perspective, both with regard to the nature of man and the nature of marriage.

Verhaltenstherapeutische Versuche (durch systematische Desensibilisierung

The theory of behaviour therapy in phobias and the technique of desensitisation according to Wolpe and Lazarus (1969) are discussed. The author presents 10 cases of his own including two genuine phobias, three cases of psychogenic tremor, two hysterical conversion reactions, one hypochrondriacal neurosis, one anxiety neurosis with cardiac phobia, and one patient with compulsive ideas, all of which had been treated by the method of systematic desensitisation. After eliciting the data of the abnormal behaviour a hierarchy was set up, a therapeutic plan formulated and following a modified Jacobsonian program of progressive relaxation the gradual desensitisation was carried out. An average of 16 sessions of 30–40 minutes per patient was applied. The total duration of treatment was 6–10 weeks, that of the follow-up 6–12 months. Two transient, three good and five very good results were achieved. In a few cases additional techniques were employed such as stimulus flooding and model learning. In all patients positive reinforcement by praise etc. was used. The moderate and unsatisfactory results were analysed. The possibility of the application of desensitisation to condition other than pure phobias were discussed.

The Guidance Clinic

A guidance clinic program based on behavior modification theory and positive reinforcement was implemented in one junior and one senior high school in the Sacramento City Unified School District. It proved effective as an op tional way of dealing with disruptive students who ordinarily would have been suspended, exempted, or excluded from school.

Language behavior therapy: A derivative of social behaviorism

It is suggested (1) that a personality level is necessary in behavioral theory, (2) that the individual learns enduring personality repertoires that determine his general behavior, (3) that language is composed of several separately learned but intermeshed personality repertoires that are the underlying constituents of personality constructs like intelligence, self-concept, and so on, (4) that personality repertoires can be modified by language means, according to learning principles, and (5) that behavior therapy must begin to include analyses of personality repertoires and methods of changing such repertoires. Some of the language repertorie are described as are ways by which problems can be treated through the language behavior therapy methods outlined. This provides a theoretical framework for considering certain traditional psychotherapy practices in behavioral terms as well as for broadening behavior therapy theory, research, and practice. The present approach thus aims at unification of traditional personality and psychotherapy theory with learning theory, with the latter providing the basic principles. The general, unified theory is called social behaviorism.

Behavior Modification and Social Learning Theory: Applications in the School

Behavior Modification and Social Learning Theory: Applications in the School

Behavior Modification Theory and Practice: A Reply

Behavior Modification Theory and Practice: A Reply